Education predicts incidence of preclinical mobility disability in initially high-functioning older women. The...

To examine the impact of educational attainment on the incidence of preclinical mobility disability (PCD).

The Women's Health and Aging II Study is a prospective observational cohort study of 436 initially high-functioning community-dwelling women aged 70-79 years at baseline in Baltimore, Maryland. We measured the association of highest attained education level with preclinical mobility disability (PCD) over an 11-year period. PCD is defined as self-reported modification in any of four tasks without reporting difficulty in those tasks. The tasks were walking ½ mile, climbing up steps, doing heavy housework, and getting in/out of bed or chair.

Participants with less than 9 years of education were more likely to acquire incident PCD (hazard ratio: 3.1, 95% confidence interval = 1.2-7.7) than their counterparts with more education after adjusting for income, marital status, number of diseases, and high self-efficacy.

Lower education level is an independent predictor of incident preclinical mobility disability. This association has important implications for primary and secondary prevention and can be easily assessed in clinical encounters.